[IABS-Talk] chicago minutes draft 2.

[David Meyer]

NFBI CHICAGO CHAPTER MEETING

 

SEPTEMBER 12, 2020

 

The meeting was called to order at 1:00 pm.

What's Happening: Gregory Rosenberg reported that he continues to be in good
health and he also states that his 83-year-old mother just diagnosed with
Stage 4 ovarian cancer. Nadia Sherman states that for the first time in
about 4 months, her health is very stable. Eileen says that she had bad eye
pain and had to see an eye doctor who told her that she had corneal
abrasions on both eyes and she is taking eye drops for that. Kira McColl
says that she has a job interview at the Chicago Lighthouse on 9/14. There
were 33 people on the call.

 

Approval of August 8 minutes was approved.

 

Treasurer's report: Steve Hastalis reported that the Chicago Chapter had
$6,035 and we have no outstanding transactions. The September PAC
(pre-authorized contribution plan) cleared on 9/11.

 

State Presidential Report: The state convention is 10/30, 10/31, and 11/1.
Our convention theme is Fearless in Uncertain Times. Our national
representative will be Pam Allen, who is our first vice president of our
National Board of Directors As of yet, we do not have a NABS rep. We will be
doing this convention virtually for safety reasons. We will be doing the
Zoom platform. We need to practice raising our hands and muting and unmuting
yourself when it's time for you to speak. The convention will start at 2:00
pm on 10/30 with a Federation activity dealing with Federation philosophy.
We will move into our resolutions and then we will have a time set aside for
the scholarship class after that there will be a trivia night and other fun
activities from the Student Division. On Saturday, 10/31, we will have our
general morning session starting at 9:00 am and ending at about 11:30 am.
The student division will have its virtual lunch with the parent division.
At 2:00 pm, we will continue on with the afternoon general session. The
parents will be in a breakout with Debbie Stein. From 6:00 pm to 8:00 we
will have our banquet. We are actually looking for politicians to come on
during that time. It appears that Mayor Lightfoot will help us open the
morning general session. The Chicago Chapter will give an award to Karen
Tamley at the banquet and then the affiliate will give an award to Dr. Janet
Szlyk from the Chicago Lighthouse. We will pick it up on Sunday morning,
11/1, with student elections from 8:00 to 9:00 am and then we will come back
at 9:30 am with the final general session, which will include Braille is
Beautiful, resolutions, and also elections. Convention registration is
complimentary, though we certainly would welcome donations to the affiliate.
If you wish to pay your chapter dues for the coming year, or, if you haven't
paid at all for this year, you can go ahead and pay once you register on the
website. Go to www.nfbofillinois.org, scroll down to convention, click on
that and you will find the registration form. The other important piece here
is that we will be using the Swift voting platform that our national
organization used back in July to cast our votes. That means that you will
have to go to nfbvote.org in order to register the number you plan to vote
from. If you don't register the number, then you will be unable to vote in
the elections on that Sunday. If you try to vote from another number, your
vote will not be cast. It is important that you register the number you want
to vote from by October 9. The sooner you do all of this, the better off
everybody will be. We will get the names in. We can get the registration
taken care of. You can actually do both at the same time. State President,
Denise Avant, asked Chicago Chapter President, David Meyer if there was
going to be an October meeting. Dave stated that there will be an October
meeting; however, we will not have a November meeting because we will have a
Read-a-thon at that time. The Chicago Board of Elections has way that blind
voters can vote by mail with complete independence. They have not released
details about this, however. You would have to request your vote by mail
ballot, but, at the same time, let them know that you want to vote privately
and independently and they will make sure that you can sign up for the
proper ballot. Denise did not have any details. She wanted to let us know
that it's coming since it's supposed to start on 9/24 and the Chicago
Chapter will not have a meeting before this is supposed to be rolled out. If
you want to vote by mail, you will need to call the Chicago Board of
Elections because they need to understand that this information needs to be
released to blind and low vision voters, so that people will know what
they're supposed to do. Gregory asked Denise what are the next steps in
voting at the state convention, Denise stated that she would be given a
telephone number that you are supposed to call. During the convention Denise
will state that number several times, so you'll know what you are supposed
to do. On that form, you were supposed to put your first name, your last
name, your phone number which you intend to use when voting and the
convention you're wanting to vote at, which means Illinois. Once the
telephone number is released, Denise will be able to make sure that people
have it and she will repeat it several times. Folks who do not have
computers and need assistance with the registration process should reach out
to any of us who do have computers and we can make sure you get registered
to vote on the number that you plan on using. If you need help registering
for the state convention, both Patti and Dave can help you do that as well.
The website for voting is www.nfbvote.org. 

 

National Presidential Release #497: President Riccobono said that our
national building is open and that About 1/3 of the staff is at the building
on a regular basis. Feel free to call and your calls will be routed to
people in and out of the Jernigan Institute. 

President Riccobono stated that NFB is not a partisan organization. We're
focused on blindness and we're focused on making sure that we can advance
the rights of blind people in this nation. Elections are a critical way for
us to do that, not just federal elections but all elections. This election
is particularly important because of what is or is not happening in making
sure that that the elections are fully accessible to blind people. About a
year ago last September, President Riccobono sent a letter on behalf of the
Federation to all the states advising them to get ready for the 2020
election and to put matters in place to make sure that blind people could
vote in all of the forms of voting, not just in person, but absentee mail-in
ballots to get ready to build those systems. When COVID hit, a lot of states
did nothing and many of them are still threatening to do nothing. We're
actively working between suing, filing complaints, or pursuing complaints
with the Department of Justice, voting issues in 17 of our affiliates and we
are providing technical assistance and a lot more than that. We are actively
working to ensure that all blind people have access to the vote, not just
this election, but for all elections. If the process in your state is not
fully accessible for blind people, we need you to go out and vote because
our participation will help advance the work that we're trying to do to get
accessibility in all forms of voting. When you go out to vote or stay in to
vote, we need you to document what happened and we need you to tell the
story good or bad. Share what happens with NFB through our blind voter's
survey which will be available on or about 10/6, because a lot of people are
voting early. Once you vote, take the time to fill out our survey. We want
you to share your story on social media. If voter registration is not
accessible in your state, you can still register using the accessible
national mail voter registration form located on the Election Assistance
Commission website. Due to COVID, many local voting places will be closed.
So be sure that you check your local election information contact to see If
your typical polling place will be open or not. Check that out if you're
planning to vote in person. We do encourage you to consult our blind voter's
guide for information on what your rights are as a blind voter, for tips on
accessible voting machines, and what to do if you encounter problems at the
polls during this election. You can find the blind voter's guide and
download it from our website. You may also order Braille or large print
copies from our Independence Market. You can go to nfb.org/vote, and when
you get there, you can follow the link for the importance of voting, find
the blind voter's guide, and many other great resources that you or your
chapter can use to promote voting among members of the Federation. If you
are unable to mark your ballot for the 2020 presidential election privately
and independently, we encourage you to file a complaint with the US
Department of Justice by completing the ADA complaint form which can be
found at ADA.gov homepage. Please send the National Office information about
that complaint, so we can help track that. You can email Lou Ann Blake, who
heads up our Help America Vote Act activities at the National Office. 

Since the beginning of the year, we have been working with Lyft on getting
rideshare coupons for getting people to the polls. We are partnering with
Lyft again for the 2020 presidential election and getting rides to the
polls. You will receive information about the Lyft partnership and how you
can access the Lyft coupon codes for going to the polls very soon. Watch for
that in the coming weeks. 

Blind students are going to encounter challenging accessibility questions
around the technologies that they're expected to use, especially to do
virtual learning. NFB has an educational technology survey that is available
at our legal website, nfb.org/legal. Please go there, fill it out, share
your experiences with educational technology, good or bad, so that we can
help track what's happening in schools at all levels, K-12, or higher
education. We use that data to focus on advocacy and legal efforts on the
areas that need the most attention. 

We have Meet the Blind Month which will happen in October. Chapters should
continue to plan activities and be creative about virtual activities. Our
theme is Lived Experiences in our local communities around problem-solving,
self-confidence, and intersectionality's. You can learn more by visiting
nfb.org/mtbm (Meet the Blind Month). 

Our national seniors' division is hosting the 2020 virtual seniors retreat
from October 18-24 virtually on Zoom. You can visit seniors.nfb.org to get
more information about this event. 

NFB masks will soon be available in the Independence Market. We've ordered a
limited number of fabric face masks with our logo and you can call and
preorder them now. The face masks are a medium blue color with our logo
centered in white. The face-covering is approximately 7 and 1/4 inches by 4
and 3/4 inches. The inside of the mask is a soft white fabric. They have
traditional loops for the ears. They will be available early October, but
you can preorder them starting right now. The masks will sell for $4 a piece
or 3 for $10. The cost does not include shipping. These are not eligible for
Free Matter for the Blind, so it's three masks for $10 plus shipping. You
can call the Independence Market at 410-659-9314, extension 2216. Our team
members will take your preorder information and will call you back when the
masks are here and will take payment at that time. If we get enough
preorders, we'll get a larger quantity. 

 

Old Business: Regarding national legislation, Marilyn says we still have 11
cosponsors on the Access Technology Affordability Act, HR 2086, and 1
cosponsor, Tammy Duckworth, which is S815. We have 2 cosponsors in the House
for HR 5312, which is Accessible Instructional Materials in Higher
Education, no senate cosponsors. We still only have Jan Schakowsky, who is
an originating cosponsor for HR 3929, which is Gaining Greater Access in
Independence for Nonvisual Access Technology. We have 3 people who have not
cosponsored HR 2086 in the House which were cosponsors last Congress, Mike
Quigley, Danny Davis and Bobby Rush. 

 

The Chicago Legislative Committee: Kira Obradovich states that we will honor
Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Karen Tamley who directed the Mayor's Office for
People with Disabilities and is now the director of Access Living, with
plaques recognizing their service, in particular, for making sure that we
are working toward being the most accessible city in the United States. They
will both participate in the state convention. 

 

Dave is looking for contributions for our read-a-thon. Those folks, who have
participated before, please participate again. A read-a-thon is where you
grab a book, read a book, and try to get money to read the book. It will
occur on 11/14 from 1:00 to 4:00 pm. We will be doing it virtually. If you
wish to participate in the Read-a-thon, you may read print or Braille. You
may also engage in audio reading. There will be an admission fee of $10 if
you choose to read. However, if you raise $10 or more, from the outside
community, your admission fee will be waived. We raised about $1,200 last
year.

Door Prizes for the State Convention: This year we're asking that if people
want to donate door prizes, they should do so with cash, since it is
virtual. It saves us the hassle of having to figure out how we're going to
deliver the door prizes to people. You can either use Zelle or send a check
to Patti Chang, NFBI treasurer. Her address is 6919 West Berwyn Avenue,
Chicago, IL 60656. Ellen Bartelt is the door prize chair. She will be
picking the names for the convention and explain how to claim your prize.
Zelle is a banking app. Big banks do have a way to donate through Zelle. You
send Patti the cash through Zelle and you make a note as to how you want the
prize distributed. Do you want it distributed at the banquet? If you send
$100, are you going to want to give that given all at one time, or are you
going to want it to be given in $20i increments? In that way, Ellen will
know how to distribute your prize. Zelle does have an app that you can
download to your phone. But also many banks will give you an option when you
pay your bills on their website to use them to donate money that way. The
other option is that you can just write a check to the affiliate and mail it
to Patti explaining what it is you want to do.

Michal says If anyone from outside of the resolution committee has ideas for
resolutions they would like to submit, to do so as soon as possible. The
next resolutions committee will take place on 9/17. The meeting is open to
all. 

 

New Business: A question was raised if we can give gift certificates
redeemable at the Independence Market or similar adaptive equipment
technology manufacturers. Patti stated no. if somebody does not get their
certificate, she has to spend time chasing it down. It's easier to give
people money. If you give a certificate, it's tied to your email and
sometimes it doesn't transfer it over. If you just send Patti the link, it
does not mean that the person that you intended for that certificate will be
able to get that certificate. 

Dave and Denise stated to everyone that when you make noise in the
background, it is a true distraction when you're trying to host or moderate
a meeting or trying to create an impression about your state's convention or
your chapter's meeting, it doesn't serve any purpose whatsoever, so please
refrain from all background noise. Raise your hand. 

 

The meeting adjourned at 2:22 pm.

Respectfully submitted: Eileen F. Truschke, Secretary, Chicago Chapter 

 

 

David Meyer, NFB of Illinois

Coordinator and Channel Administrator, NFB-NewsLine

Chicago Chapter President